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#2066682 - 04/18/1306:08 PMRe: Can you play your own national anthem?
[Re: BruceD]

currawong
6000 Post Club Member
Registered: 05/15/07
Posts: 6004
Loc: Down Under

Originally Posted By: BruceD

And, while on the topic, I think it is nothing short of a disgrace - may I even venture to suggest "anti-patriotic"? - to hear what some singers do to national anthems in large, public celebrations. This observation is not limited to performances of just the American anthem.

The Australian anthem gets butchered in a similar way. And so many of these singers augment the last two bars so that now you never know whether it's going to be sung in time or stretched out at the end (with predictable consequences when a group is singing it - a weird counterpoint results ). And yes, I can play it. In any key you like (and a few you probably wouldn't like). It has quite a range, though not as much as Star-Spangled Banner, so it's pretty useful to be able to adjust the key according to the capacity of the singers.

I play once in a while for my local government. I received a phone call today where they're in a bind and need someone to play their national anthem for an awards ceremony. I agreed to play and am doing them a favor - this is a freebie.

It's a matter of me playing two choruses while the mayor of my village performs. To his credit he has an excellent voice and is a nice guy.

I remember once back probably more than 40 years ago in the US where I was in the audience and some poor kid who really didn't know our anthem really butchered it.

It's really in your best interest to be able to play your own national anthem ... and play it with great confidence.

Just passin' this on.

__________________________________

Well, what is funny and worse is....

As kids at school, of course, we learned and sang all the time, O Canada, but at some point the government changed the words, I think for the benefit of French Canadians, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, since I don't go hockey games, I don't hear O Canada. I think most Canadians my age don't know the new words unless they go to professional hockey games.